White Daffodils

Facts About White Daffodils

One cannot think of daffodils without recalling William Wordsworth’s poignant description of daffodils in the poem, “I wandered, lonely as a cloud.” In the poem, England’s first Poet Laureate came upon a “host, of golden daffodils…Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.” One needs not, however, come across a host of these flowers to have their sublime beauty affect one’s sensibilities. One elegant flower is enough to make the imagination flutter with a feeling of transport.

A Single White Daffodil

The white daffodil opens up like a teacup, its porcelain white an unbelievably silky texture that almost feels like a cloth. It stands on high on single shoots that often rise in unison to create splashes of white across green English meadows. The daffodil is a part of the genus Narcissus, whose independence of appearance only adds to their beauty when you see the individual shoots waving on the wind together.

White daffodils are not always solidly white, however. They often remind us of their more traditional appearance when their petals unfold to reveal the golden trumpets inside, the contrasting splash, a landscape painter’s delight. Such beauty makes this a very sought after flower by gardeners and wedding planners, who love the flower in its pure white form because it compliments the bride’s dress.

White Daffodils at Christmas

In the northern hemisphere, where you find the true home of these snowy daffodils, many people love to get this flower to bloom all white during the Christmas holidays and then to use it as a decoration for holiday tabletops.

You can, in fact, do this as well. If you want to have white daffodils at Christmas time, all you have to do is find a nursery where they sell white daffodil bulbs and go purchase one or more. Then you take a cup that is big enough, fill it with stones and water, and then place the bulb atop the stones facing up.

Place the cup with the white daffodil bulb near a very sunny window, and wait for it to start to bloom. It usually takes about a month and a half so plan accordingly.

Caring for White Daffodils

White Daffodils are beautiful flowers of a hearty pedigree. Out in the “real world,” gardeners typically plant white daffodils in gardens in the fall and they remain in the ground throughout the winter until they start to bloom. If you are planning to grow your own pale beauties, you should also make sure to get nice hearty bulbs. The perfect spot for white daffodils is in an area of the garden where there is intense morning light, but where the other, taller growths tend to siphon some of the sun’s more intense afternoon rays.

You then take the bulbs and bury them a good way into the soil so that they are completely covered. Mulch the area above the bulbs in order to make sure that moisture remains about the same throughout the winter.

Water when needed and if you want to have more daffodils the following year, you should leave it alone and let its buds fade and die right on the plant. This allows the nutrients that are left over in the bud to be reabsorbed.

A Gift Idea

Finally, if you successfully grow your white daffodils, you will find that cutting some and offering them as gifts during certain holidays really goes over well. Even people who are not particularly interested in flowers tend to be blown away by the beauty of the white daffodil, whose yellow cousins made such an impression on the old poet that he would carry the “dance” with him in his “mind’s eye” even in his old age.